The American Colonial Tradition

The arrival of the Americans at the turn of the century was to alter the course of Philippine
literature. New literary forms were introduced, chiefly, free verse, the modern short story,
and the critical essay. The American influence came with the educational system which
instituted English as the medium of instruction. On the university level, young writers were
exposed to literary modernism, which higlighted the individuality of the writer and cultivated
craft consciousness, sometimes at the expense of social consciousness. The University of the
Philippines served as the center of new writing, with the College Folio and, especially, The
Literary Apprentice leading the way towards writing that kept up with literary trends outside
the country. Writers in Tagalog and Cebuano, principally poet Alejandro G. Abadilla and
fictionist Marcel Navarra, incorporated new techniques and perspectives into their works.
Traditional writing, however, as well as the Spanish heritage, persisted together with the
influx of new trends coming from the new colonizer. English writing in the Philippines had its
beginnings in the first decade of the 20th century, but began to attain stature only during the
1920s. It was the writers in English who first experimented with modernism, breaking away
from the purposiveness of the works of writers in Spanish and the native languages. The
earliest collections of poems in English were Reminiscences, 1921, by Lorenzo Paredes, Never
Mind and Other Poems, 1922, by Procopio Solidum, Filipino Poetry, 1924, edited by Rodolfo
Dato, and Azucena, 1925, by Marcelo de Gracia Concepcion. However, the central figure in the
entry of modernism in poetry was Jose Garcia Villa, whose aestheticist ideas insisted that the
artist’s main concern was with his craft, thus positing an essential dichotomy between art and
ideas. While his followers did not go to the extreme to which Villa’s poetic practice led, young
writers whose education put them in touch with the latest developments of writing in the
United States and the West were seduced by a critical theory that freed them from political or
social pressures. One of the earliest to toy with free verse, Villa earned early notoriety when
he was censured by UP authorities for some poems in free verse that appeared in a national
magazine. But it was not so much the form that the authorities objected to as the subject
matter, treated with, till then unknown, frankness: physical love. “The Coconut Poem”, 1929,
also called “Song of Ripeness,” was specially noted. The coconuts have ripened, They are like
nipples to the tree. (A woman has only two nipples, There are many women-lives in a coconut
tree.) Soon the coconuts will grow heavy and full. I shall pick up one … many. Like a child I
shall suck their milk, I shall suck out of coconuts little white songs. I shall be reminded of
many women. … I shall kiss a coconut because it is the nipple of a woman. Angela Manalang
Gloria wrote about love with similar candor and was to suffer censorship when the Bureau of
Education would approve her book Poems, 1940, as supplementary text for students only
after certain revisions. In her poems is heard, perhaps for the first time, the unfettered voice
of a woman. Her “Heloise to Abelard” speaks of illicit love with a boldness alien in its time.
Free verse was to establish itself as a hallmark of modern poetry when Rafael Zulueta da
Costa ’s Like the Molave and Other Poems, 1940, won the major prize in the Commonwealth
Literary Contest. Unlike Villa, however, da Costa departed from aestheticism and delved into
sociopolitical issues. The title poem of his collection denounces westernization, the frivolity of
youth, and the neglect of the masses. Other poets in English before World War II were Aurelio
S Alvero, A.E. Litiaco, Fernando M. Maramag, Natividad Marquez, Trinidad Tarrosa-Subido,
Vidal Tan, Guillermo Castillo, Cornelio F. Faigao, Procopio Solidum, Fernando Ma. Guerrero,
Virgilio Floresca, and Gerson M. Mallillin. The publication of vernacular works, in sharp
contrast to the withering of Spanish literature, bloomed. The gradual supplanting of Spanish,
the voice of the elite, by voices once suppressed can be attributed to the less restrictive
atmosphere of the American Occupation—although the new colonizers would also censor
“seditious” works—and the rise of literacy among the populace. The end of the monopoly of
printing presses by religious groups also encouraged the production of literature other than
the sacred. Popular writing in the native languages had a vast audience which it served mainly
through weekly magazines, such as Liwayway and Bisaya. Modernism entered rather late in
vernacular poetry. For the most part, vernacular poetry hewed largely to the conventions
established by Balagtas, in form rigidly structured according to expected metrics, in theme
cloyingly sentimental. Although some poets, like Pedro Gatmaitan, Benigno Ramos, and Cirio
H. Panganiban, experimented with form or dabbled in free verse, their poetry remained by
and large traditional in theme or, when read aloud, followed traditional prosody. The Balagtas
tradition persisted until shortly before World War II, when modernism would have a
vociferous advocate, Alejandro G. Abadilla. Protesting against the excessive sentimentality
and restrictive conventions of vernacular poetry, Abadilla stripped his poetry of rime and
meter, shunned all florid artifice in poetic expression, and celebrated the individualist spirit.
His “ako ang daigdig” (i am the world), 1940, heralded the arrival of modernism in vernacular
poetry. The first part reads: ako ang daigdig ako ang tula ako ang daigdig ang tula ako ang
daigdig ng tula ang tula ng daigdig ako ang walang maliw na ako ang walang kamatayang ako
ang tula ng daigdig i the world i the poem i the world the poem i the world of the poem the
poem of the world i i without end i without death the poem of the world However, Abadilla
was to remain a maverick figure until the arrival in the 1960s of young poets, such as Virgilio
S. Almario, Pedro L. Ricarte, and Rolando S. Tinio, writing modern verse published in campus
literary organs. The Philippines, then beset with economic problems aggravated by World War
II, preferred the patriotic and socially committed verses of Amado V. Hernandez. His
collections of nationalist and protest poems include Kayumanggi at Iba Pang Tula (Brown and
Other Poems), 1941, and Isang Dipang Langit (A Stretch of Sky), 1961. Another form brought
in during the American occupation was the modem short story. The first short stories in
English were published in the Philippines Free Press in 1908. Attempts at fiction in English
appeared in periodicals like the College Folio and Philippines Herald. Dean S. Fansler, a
teacher at the University of the Philippines had his students retell Filipino folktales in English
and collected these in Filipino Popular Tales, 1921. But it was Paz Marquez Benitez’s “Dead
Stars,” published on 20 September 1925, that gained distinction as the first successful short
story in English. Following the conventions of the modern short story—the controlled use of
foreshadowing devices, foils, flashbacks, telling dialogue, recurrent motifs, subtle symbols
and realizations, “Dead Stars” depicts the masculine psyche torn between desire and social
constraints, in prose that deftly captures the nuances of the newly acquired language.
Alfredo, the protagonist, has long been engaged to be married to the devout and orthodox
Esperanza, but he falls in love with Julia, a vivacious girl who has arrived from the province
and who reciprocates his love. Pressure from society and Esperanza and, ultimately, his own
indecision compel him to marry his fiancee. He keeps his love for Julia in his heart, only to
realize eight years later when he meets her again, that the flame has died; that while Julia
“had not changed much—a little less slender, not so eagerly alive, yet—something had gone”;
that “all these years—since when?—he had been seeing the light of dead stars, long
extinguished, yet seemingly still in their appointed places in the heavens.” Jose Garcia Villa
was equally significant in fiction in English as in poetry. In 1926 he started his annual honor
roll for the best short story in English. He himself received the first award bestowed by the
Philippines Free Press for the best short story “ Mir-i-Nisa.” “Untitled Story,” written like a
poem with its numbered paragraphs and fanciful images, gained Villa international acclaim,
having been selected by Edward J. O’Brien in New York as one of the best short stories of
1932. “The Fence” achieved similar status a year later. Villa had his first collection of short
stories, Footnote to Youth: Tales of the Philippines and Others, 1933, published by Scribner’s,
New York. Before World War II, women writers, notably Paz Latorena, Loreto Paras-Sulit, and
Estrella Alfon, who continued to write after the war, demonstrated sensitivity and skill in their
short stories. Arturo B. Rotor and Manuel E. Arguilla came out with early collections that
attested to the Filipino writers’ mastery of the new genre. Rotor’s The Wound and the Scar,
1937, consists mainly of stories in which a doctor is led into painful introspection about
himself and his world as a result of his contact with his patients. Each time, he discovers the
gulf separating people from one another. How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife and
Other Stories, 1940, by Arguilla is remarkable for the fictionist’s ability to record in English the
speech and gestures of rural Filipinos as though the characters were using their own dialect.
Early Tagalog short fiction began with the sketch, called dagli or pasingaw. Many sketches
were anti-American and were socially conscious, although they were also spiced with
romance. Valeriano Hernandez Peña, Lope K. Santos, and Patricio Mariano were among those
who wrote these minimal narratives. Among the characteristics of early short fiction were
sentimentality, the use of rhetorical and flowery language, and the frequency of unrealistic
incidents. It was to be Deogracias A. Rosario in the 1910s who would go beyond the
fashionable, anecdotal dagli and, learning from models Guy de Maupassant and O. Henry,
produce short stories that earned him the appellation “Father of the Tagalog Short Story". His
protagonists often come from the upper echelons of society or are expatriates who grow to
love their own country. “Greta Garbo,” a story about a woman who learns too late of her
lover’s infidelity, shows Rosario’s ability to manipulate the chronology of incidents and to
drop subtle hints in order to build suspense which leads to the protagonist Monina Vargas’
realization. Four short story collections of note were published during the first 50 years of the
20th century: 50 Kuwentong Ginto ng 50 Batikang Kuwentista (50 Golden Stories by 50
Veteran Storytellers), 1939, edited by Pedrito Reyes; Mga Kuwentong Ginto, 1925-35 (Golden
Stories, 1925-35), 1936, edited by Alejandro G. Abadilla and Clodualdo del Mundo, both of
whom tried to polish the writing of short fiction; Ang Maikling Kuwentong Tagalog 1886-1948
(The Tagalog Short Story 1886-1948), 1949, edited by Teodoro A. Agoncillo and Ang 25
Pinakamabuting Maikling Kathang Pilipino ng 1943 (The 25 Best Pilipino Short Stories of
1943), 1944, a collection of the prize-winning stories of a contest sponsored by the Japanese
government. Writers of short fiction in the different vernaculars before and after World War II
included Liwayway Arceo, Jesus A. Arceo, David D. Campañano, Salvador Perfecto, Nany
Calderon Jr., Ariston Em. Echeverria, Serafin Guinigundo, and Brigido Batungbakal. Macario
Pineda and Genoveva Edroza-Matute, who began as writers in English but shifted soon
enough to Tagalog, became early modernists along with Lorenzo Dilag Fajardo and Abe S.
Gonzales in Ilongo, Benjamin Pascual in Ilocano, Rosario Tuason-Baluyut in Pampango,
Clemente Alejandria and Nicolasa Ponte-Perfecto in Bicol, and Marcel Navarra and Eugenio
Viacrucis in Cebuano. Pineda, first noticed during the Japanese Occupation, wrote of rural folk
caught between their traditional ways and the demands of urbanization, in a language that is
colloquial yet quaint and literary to outsiders. Modernism characterizes his stories, in which
seemingly disjointed impressions coalesce in the end; the impact comes from inference, after
one weaves the various narrative strands together. In “Suyuan sa Tubigan” (Courtship by the
Watered Fields), 1943, an unnamed narrator presents scenes from a community ritual—
harrowing the watered fields, while subtly revealing a tender love story. Matute’s stories are
about women and children trembling on the brink of discoveries that would open their eyes
to a new aspect of the world around them. Her stories demonstrate her deft handling of
structure. In “Bughaw Pa sa Likod ng Ulap” (It’s Still a Blue Sky Behind the Clouds), a young
boy salvages recyclable objects during the war years, as he dreams of liberation, receiving an
education, and his father coming home, unaware that his father has already been killed by
the Japanese. Matute skillfully manipulates point of view to heighten the irony. “Huwag mong
sasabihin sa mga bata.” Iyon ay tinig ng kanilang ina. Antok na antok na si Iding. Ang lahat
nang iyo’y nagdaan sa kanyang pandinig at minsan ma’y hindi siya nagmulat ng mata. Iyon
ba’y karugtong ng sali-salimuot niyang pangarap? At ngayo’y kinakausap siya ni Edo.
“Nabibigatan ka ba sa iyong dala? Malapit na ang atin. “At ngayo’y isinusumbong niya si Islaw
sa kanyang kuya. “Sukat bang agawin ni Islaw ang isang ito? Ha! Ang akala niya’y…”
Nakatatakot ang mukha ng kawal na Hapon. Isang piraso ng kahoy ang hawak sa dalawang
kamay. At ang kahoy ay lalagpak na … lalagpak na! Dumating na si Kano! Bumalik na ang
kanilang ama mula sa pamumundok. Siya at ang kanyang kuya ay naglalakad. Isinusunod niya
ang hakbang ng paa niyang kanan sa kanang paa niyon at sa kaliwa sa kaliwa. Sila ay patungo
sa salikop ng daan, sa may pagpasok ng bayan. “Don’t tell the children.” It is their mother’s
voice. Iding is very sleepy. He hears all and never once opens his eyes. Is it still a part of his
dream? And now he hears Edo speaking to him. “Does your load feel heavy? We are almost
home.” And now he is telling on Islaw to his brother. “How dare he snatch this from me! Ha!
Did he think that …” Frightening is the sight of the Japanese soldier. He holds a rod in his
hands. And he is about to strike … to strike! The Yankees have come! Their father has come
down from the mountains. He and his brother are walking. He tries to follow his brother’s
strides. They are walking towards the crossroads, down to where the town lies. American rule
also saw the emergence of the novel, particularly the novel in the different vernaculars. With
the appearance of more newspapers and magazines, writers had more outlets that could
accommodate an extended form like the novel. Novels deriving from the romantic-didactic
tradition abounded, but there were also works that did honor to the Rizal tradition of social
realism. Modernism in the novel would arrive later, in the 1950s, in the works of Macario
Pineda and Agustin Fabian. The romantic tradition was fused with American pop culture or
European influences mediated through America. Adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan
series were done by F.P. Boquecosa, who also made a David Copperfield counterpart, Pepe, in
Ang Palad ni Pepe (The Fate of Pepe), 1937. The Gothic and the Victorian, introduced through
American movies and education, would be evident in Fausto Galauran’s Doktor Kuba (Doctor
Hunchback), 1933, and Magdalena Jalandoni’s novels. The tradition would continue in the
hands of Conrado Norada, Jose E. Yap (aka Pedro Solano), Ismaelita Floro Luza, Susana de
Guzman, and Nemesio Caravana. On the other hand, the realist tradition was kept alive by
Lope K. Santos’ Banaag at Sikat (Glimmer and Light), 1906, Faustino Aguilar’s Pinaglahuan
(Eclipsed), 1907, Francisco Laksamana’s Anino ng Kahapon (Shadow of Yesteryears), 1906, and
Lazaro Francisco’s Ama (Father), 1927, and Ilaw sa Hilaga (Light in the North), 1946. In
Cebuano, socially conscious novels include Nicolas Rafols’ Ang Pulahan (The Pulahan), 1919, a
novel of protest against the Americans and the Spaniards; Juan Villagonzalo’s Wala’y Igsoon
(No Siblings), 1912, a novel that recognizes class differences; and Tomas Hermosisima’s Balik
sa Yuta (Return to the Soil), 1937, the first proletarian novel. The scarcity of the Philippine
novel in English when compared to the vernacular novel in the first half of the 20th century
can be traced to the writers’ struggle with the language. Zoilo Galang wrote the first novel in
English, A Child of Sorrow, 1921, a love triangle with sociopolitical overtones. Shortly after
World War II, novels on the war were published: Stevan Javellana’s Without Seeing the Dawn,
1947, Edilberto Tiempo’s Watch in the Night, 1953, Jose V. Aguilar’s The Great Faith, 1948, and
Juan C. Laya’s This Barangay, 1950. Other writers in English before World War II include
Maximo Kalaw, N.V.M. Gonzalez, Fernando Castro, Felicidad Ocampo, Leon Ma. Guerrero,
Ismael Mallari, and Consorcio Borje. In the essay, however, English was quick to become the
leading medium. Zoilo Galang’s Life and Success, 1921, was the first book of essays in English,
but various pieces had met publication before it. With College Folio as their outlet, Fernando
Maramag, Tarcila Malabanan, and Jorge B. Vargas produced essays of considerable merit.
Thinking for Ourselves, 1924, edited by Vicente M. Hilario and Eliseo M. Quirino, was another
early collection of essays, many of which were written by leaders of the time. Essayists in
English before World War II, many of whom were journalists, included Carlos P.Romulo,
known for his rather oratorical style and his book I Saw the Fall of the Philippines, 1942, and
recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for journalism; Jorge Bocobo, famous for “College Uneducation,”
which expresses concern for the lack of independent thinking among students; Pura Santillan-
Castrence, whose column “Woman Sense” comments from a female perspective on current
events; and Amando G. Dayrit, whose column “Good Morning, Judge” focuses on trivial day-
to-day incidents. Francisco B. Icasiano, known as “Mang Kiko,” wrote familiar, often humorous
essays on the rural life in his column “From My Nipa Hut,” later collected as a book entitled
Horizons From My Nipa Hut, 1941. Camilo Osias’ The Filipino Way of Life: The Pluralized
Philosophy, 1940, published in the United States, contains essays on Filipino traits and habits,
such as the bahala na attitude. I.V. Mallari’s The Birth of Discontent, 1940, is a collection of
autobiographical pieces tracing the growth of the author, referred to as the Little Boy in the
book. In one essay, “Into the World of Words,” Mallari narrates, in prose lucid and vivid, his
discovery of the double-edged power of words to delight and to hurt. After being wounded by
an invective, the Little Boy, Mallari’s persona, is described: He had never thought of words as
weapons before, but one lesson was enough for the Little Boy. He soon learned to dip these
weapons in the venom of the serpent and the asp, or to hide them in the silken folds of other
words smooth and glossy. For he was to find again and again that this world of Christianity
and brotherly love was full of people who relished stabbing one another’s back—with words
if not with swords! Criticism, a form developed during the American period, was written by
Ignacio Manlapaz, Leopoldo Yabes, and I. V. Mallari. But it was Salvador P. Lopez’s criticism,
expressed in Literature and Society, 1940, which would be remembered most. Winner of the
Commonwealth Literary Award for the essay, the book disputes Jose Garcia Villa’s stance that
art exists only for its own sake. Art with substance, claims Lopez, is art with social content; art
for art’s sake is decadence: Undoubtedly there are men in every generation who will create
for their own sake beautiful things which it is our duty to treasure. But these artists represent
an aberration from the normal course of nature, and if we confer upon them the name of
genius, it is genius of a decidedly inferior category…. Shakespeare, Shelley and Whitman
achieved more than mere beauty in their works; they were, in a fashion that is not to be
confused with crude instruction, teachers of men. We are not forgetting, despite the
emphasis on “social content,” that we are speaking of literature and not propaganda. The
challenge which we ask the intelligent writer to meet is not challenge to beat the drums and
to blow the trumpet of progress. We are only reminding him that of all the ends to which he
may dedicate his talents, none is more worthy than the improvement of the condition of man
and the defense of his freedom. The decades of American colonial rule brought both benefits
and drawbacks. On the one hand, it enriched Philippine literature with the introduction of
forms already established in other parts of the world, such as free verse and literary criticism.
The entry of modernism provided an alternative to the hackneyed conventions of the once
vital balagtasismo, when it later degenerated into linguistic purism and artificiality. The
abolition of the Spanish Comision Permanente de Censura also encouraged the production of
local literatures. However, American rule, through the teaching of New Critical aesthetics, also
deployed the writers’ attention from society solely to their craft, and indirectly engendered a
disparaging attitude towards writings in the different vernaculars, specifically the novel. The
tension between art that worships the text and art that responds to the times would recur in
the contemporary period.